Change Has Come: Now For The Hard Part

Now Barack Obama must validate the hope and deliver the change he promised. He's already changed America by becoming the first black man to win to the White House. His challenge is to change the course of the government and guide it through hard times and past the financial crisis he inherits as he takes office. And deliver on his promise of a new dawn of the world.

The Audacity of Hope, the title of his book, could also have been the tilte of his campaign. It certainly was audicious for a fledging 47-year-old senator from Illinois to run for president-and soundly beat veteran Republican Senator John McCain in an electorial college landslide yesterday.

Obama gained 52 percent of the popular vote against 46 percent for McCain with 96 percent of all US precints tallied. In electorial votes, it wasn't even close - 349 to 173.

Obama drew remarkable crowds as a campaigner, and more than 200,000 jammed into Chicago's Great Park on election night, not only to rejoice in victory, he said, but to join in facing the rigours ahead.

"Even as we celebrate tonight, we know that the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest in our lifetime," Obama said. "Two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."

All that and more.

"This victory alone is not the change we seek," Obama cautioned. "It is only the chance for us to make that change. I will be your president of change."

Such fine vows are traditional when a new president is elected. Delivering on them is work ahead...